


Long Live the Empress

by Dox



Category: Dishonored (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Drabble, Gen, Minor Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-02
Updated: 2013-09-02
Packaged: 2017-12-25 09:20:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/951390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dox/pseuds/Dox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Corvo can no longer deal with the beating of that heart, and prepares to put it to rest.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Long Live the Empress

**Author's Note:**

> This is a short drabble I wrote while replaying Dishonored. The idea came while I was wondering just what Corvo planned to do with the heart once it was all over. (Minor spoilers ahead.)
> 
> Dishonored and all related characters belong, of course, to Arkane Studios.

_“Does part of the soul live in the heart? If the heart keeps beating, does that mean the spirit is never released to oblivion? I can keep a heart beating forever with electricity, but what does that mean for any essence trapped within? It would be easier if I had created these processes in waking hours - I am uneasy pursuing avenues that emanate from my dreaming mind.” -Piero Joplin_

 

He would kill the Outsider if he could. He wanted nothing more than to drive his blade into the twisted heart of the aloof pseudo-god. (If indeed he had a heart.) But the Outsider could not be cut down like some street thug or inattentive city guard. If he tried, the Outsider would probably laugh in his face. He wouldn't kill Corvo of course. He was far too _interesting_. And so, for the first time, revenge was entirely impossible for Corvo. There was no vengeance he could deliver for the monstrous prank that had been played on him.

It hadn't taken Corvo long to realize just whose heart he was carrying. It whispered to him with an oh-so-familiar voice that he couldn't possibly forget. It hadn't been enough for him to watch helplessly as the assassins came and so ruthlessly executed his empress. Now he held her heart, nearly unrecognizable, horrifically mangled with wires and gears, the Outsider's disgusting idea of a joke. Corvo certainly didn't find it very funny.

As appalling as it was, Corvo couldn't simply let it go. He always kept it close, nearly obsessed with keeping it safe. The Empress, Jessamine, was at least in some capacity _alive_. But the terrible reality of the situation could not be driven from his mind. She was alive, yet unable to feel, to breathe, to _die_ and finally be at rest. The thought haunted him, tormented him with every beat of that heart, pumping blood for a body it no longer had. Until one day, he could take the heart's quiet whispers and incessant beating no longer.

He returned to the secret room in Dunwall Tower, finding it exactly as he had left it. Hesitantly, he withdrew the organ from his coat along with the folding sword that had served him so well in the past months. With little ceremony but a whispered apology, Corvo lay the heart on the nearby desk, drew his blade and brought it down into the twisted mass of flesh and steel. For a moment, he swore he heard it scream.

Strangely, there were a few in Dunwall who, despite all evidence to the contrary, still believed that Corvo had killed the Empress.

Now they were half right.


End file.
